Rewards
Matthew 10:40-42 (NRSVUE)
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
Our scripture today is about welcoming others and reaching out to those in need. Now for the most part here in Oldtown, we try to do both. We try our best to welcome the people who come to our door, and we are quite good at reaching out to help one another and collecting items to be shared with those in need. But sometimes when we think of helping others, especially those outside of the church and outside of our circle of family and friends, we get intimidated because we see so much need in the world around us that we are not sure where to start.
Mother Teresa was famous for speaking to situations like these. First, she said, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” Then she said, “Love begins by taking care of the closest ones, the ones at home.” Finally, she said, “Sometimes we feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”
There is a story that I shared here in Oldtown years ago that speaks of the way we treat others and the way others treat us. It refers to our actions and the actions of others as drops of water. I have been thinking about that story a lot over the last few weeks, and I think it’s worth sharing again.
The story begins with a boy named Felix. Now Felix is eight or nine years old, and his sister Anna, who is much younger than him, wants to help Felix build a big, high tower with blocks. Felix quickly says no because she is too little. Well, that answer does not make Anna happy and because she is upset with him, she kicks his tower over and then she yells for Grandpa.
Grandpa gives Anna a hug and gets her a snack, and then he explains to Felix that everyone has an invisible bucket. When our buckets are full, we feel good, but the emptier our buckets get, the sadder we feel. He then explained to Felix that when he said that he wouldn’t play with Anna he took drops out of her bucket.
The next day, Felix had a terrible morning because everything went wrong. He spilled his cereal at breakfast. His dog Buster ate his muffin, and he almost missed the bus. When he got to school, an older boy made fun of his new Lazer Ant backpack. Some girls laughed at him in the hallway, and then a bully pushed him, causing all of his books to fall on the floor. It was still morning, and Felix’s bucket felt almost empty.
As he watched his classmates walk into the room, he secretly wished they would trip and fall, because that is what it feels like when you have an empty bucket. Felix slumped in his seat and waited for something else bad to happen. Mrs. Bumblenickel, his teacher, slowly walked up to his desk and handed him a paper. He could hardly bear to look at it. “Felix, you wrote a wonderful story,” she said, “would you share it with the class?”
When he read his story out loud, his classmates laughed at all the right places and oohed at the scary parts. When Felix finally read, “The End,” everyone clapped! Suddenly, Felix felt a whole shower of drops land in his bucket. “Maybe the day wouldn’t be so bad after all,” he thought to himself.
When he opened his lunch, he found a special note from his mom, and because of it, he felt another drop in his bucket! In gym, he got picked as a team captain which added another drop! In Art class, the teacher wasn’t sure what Felix had painted, but he told him that he used nice colors! Drop! By the afternoon, Felix’s bucket was just about full! At recess, he realized that his grandpa was right. Not only did he have a bucket, but everyone else had one too.
Later, he saw Mr. Johnson, the math teacher, drop his papers in the hall. Felix ran over to help him pick them up. Not only did Felix feel a drop added to his bucket, but Mr. Johnson did too. Felix saw a new boy sitting all alone, so he went over and said hi. Drop, drop, they each got a drop added to their bucket! And after school, he smiled at the bus driver and thanked him for the ride, drop, drop! Both Felix’s and the bus driver’s buckets were a little fuller. The strange thing was that for every drop he helped put in someone else’s bucket, he felt another drop in his own.
When Felix got home, he shouted, “You were right, Grandpa! I do have a bucket, and now I understand how it works!” But then he realized that his sister Anna was crying. Buster, the dog, had torn her doll. Felix almost yelled, “Bad dog!” at Buster, but then he thought, maybe dogs have invisible buckets too. “Your doll will be okay, Anna. Mom will fix her. Until then, do you want to help me build a tall building with my blocks?” And so, they did!
Friends, I wonder, have you ever felt like your bucket was empty? Some days, that happens, doesn’t it? But if we listen to Jesus, Mother Teresa, and Felix’s grandpa, we learn that by reaching out and helping others, we also help ourselves. Now, sometimes, when we get tired and our buckets feel empty, it is easy for us to feel bad for ourselves and to turn away from the world. We think we are protecting ourselves when actually we might be hurting ourselves. That is why community is so important, and that is why Jesus calls us to love one another, to welcome one another, to serve one another, and to share a cup of cold water in his name. These are all ways that we fill our buckets and the buckets of those around us.
There is another quote from Mother Teresa that says, “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to one another.” Folks, just like we help ourselves through helping others, our relationships with one another are what strengthens our relationship with God, too. Now, this is where we sometimes get confused because we always hear about the importance of our personal relationship with God, and we think that faith is something that we do alone. But the truth is, living a life of faith is not something that happens in a vacuum. It’s not about living a perfect life. It is not even about something that happens in church on Sunday morning. Living a life of faith has to do with how we react to the ups and downs of life; it’s how we react to the difficulties we face and the struggles that life brings.
Folks, it is easy to say that we follow Jesus when our buckets are full, the sun is shining, and everything is going our way, but what do we do when a bully pushes us? Or someone makes fun of us? Or someone says something that hurts us? Well, we could push back, say something mean, or do something to hurt them in return, but that wouldn’t be living out our faith, would it? Maybe we can’t change the person who hurt us or the difficult situation that we faced, but there are always other opportunities that we can choose that do make a difference. It is in times like these that we need to remember that we can only control our own actions, not the actions of others. And especially in difficult situations, that is when we need to look back to the words of Jesus that we heard today. Do you remember them?
Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. And whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.
Friends, in just a few moments, we will be gathering around the table where Jesus welcomes ALL: the strong and the weak, the broken and whole, those who are struggling and those who think they have things in control, the young and the old, those who are bullied and even the bullies themselves. For, at this table, we are ALL fed and nourished, and our buckets are filled. Not only so that we will be comfortable but so that we will go out and share God’s unconditional love with others, welcoming them, loving them, serving them, and filling their buckets as we continue to fill our own.
So, brothers and sisters in Christ, as you go out into your busy week ahead, remember the words of Jesus, the words of Mother Teresa, and the words of Felix’s Grandpa. Do your best to welcome, love, serve, and fill the buckets of others because if you do, you’ll find that you, too, are welcomed, loved, and served and that your bucket is filled to overflowing!
May it be so. Thanks be to God, Amen.
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